Nazareth College says DHS, state police were alerted after Muslim students visited local church

The president of a small New York state college on Wednesday said he was greatly disturbed after two Muslim students spurred a police investigation upon attending a local evangelical church over the weekend.

Nazareth College President Daan Braveman detailed the incident in a campus-wide email this week where he questioned a local church’s decision to contact the authorities over the students’ visit.

“This past Sunday, two of our Muslim students visited a local church as part of the Sociology of Religion course, which requires students to attend religious services that are not of their own tradition,” Mr. Braveman wrote.

“Our students were very well behaved and appeared to be well received at the church. Nevertheless, a church member subsequently called Homeland Security to express concern about Muslim students from Nazareth,” he continued.

A representative with the New York State Police contacted Nazareth afterwards in order to confirm that the two students were enrolled in the school and dropped interest in the matter once their academic status was confirmed, Mr. Braveman’s statement said.

While Mr. Braveman’s letter failed to name the church in question, local media identified the house of worship as Browncroft Community Church, a non-denominational, evangelical church not far from Nazareth’s campus in the Rochester suburb of Pittsford.

Browncroft Senior Pastor Rob Cattalani told Rochester’s Democrat & Chronicle newspaper that his church doesn’t exclude anyone. He admitted that the two individuals had drawn the attention of the church’s security team because they seemed too old to be students, however, but he denied knowing about any phone calls to the Department of Homeland Security or state police.

“My understanding is that one of them, as a follow-up, called the college to verify that these men were students,” he said of the church’s security staff. “It’s regrettable that this happened, but they are certainly welcome back.”

Mr. Braveman said he has met with the two Muslim students and plans to personally discuss the incident with members of the church.

“I am very troubled and indeed angered that two of our students were singled out because of their religious beliefs,” he wrote in Wednesday’s email. “This incident underscores, especially in the context of the larger environment, the importance of our work in promoting interfaith understanding and respect across lines of religious difference.”

Established in 1924, Nazareth College offers more than 60 undergraduate programs and 20 graduate programs to roughly 3,000 students annually.